Bound by blood: new film highlights Jamaica’s outlawed obeah belief system

Stew Peas focuses on obeah, an enduring African magic practice in Jamaica banned by colonisers in the 1700s

A new movie from award-winning Jamaican film-maker Sosiessia Nixon shines a spotlight on Jamaica’s enduring west African-based magic and spiritual healing tradition known as obeah.

Nixon’s tense, feature-length suspense, Stew Peas, tells of the story of Jamaican detective Tessa, who is obsessed with an old murder case.